


Damage Control

by Peppermint_Miraculous (Peppermint_Shamrock)



Series: Peppermint's Ladynoir July One-Shots [4]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Episode: s01 Horrificator, F/M, Identity Reveal, LadyNoir - Freeform, Ladynoir July
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-06-07 06:44:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15213446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peppermint_Shamrock/pseuds/Peppermint_Miraculous
Summary: The heroes fumble through continuing to keep their identities a secret from their class after someone points out the obvious - Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn't have gotten into the school unless they were already in there.Written for Ladynoir July Day 8 Prompt: Public Relations





	Damage Control

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate version of Horrificator where people are a bit more observant...but still pretty gullible.

“If the school is covered in goo, how did you guys even get in here?” Alix asked.

Marinette froze, and felt Chat Noir stiffen beside her. That…was a very good question. And by “good”, she meant “dangerous”. Just as she feared, Alya picked up on the obvious implications.

“You must have already been in here before the school got sealed up!” Alya said, excited and barely keeping a grip on her phone. “And there aren’t a lot of people here after hours, so you must be in our class, or part of the janitorial staff, or…”

It took all of Marinette’s self control to keep composed while her internal state could be described as “panicked screaming”, if the one doing the describing was fond of massive understatements. This was bad, this was very, _very_ bad…her identity (and maybe Chat Noir’s, but she was trying not to think about that), could be compromised in front of over half of her class – two of whom were _filming_ the whole exchange. The _best case_ scenario out of this was ~~steal~~ - _confiscating_ Alya and Nino’s phones and swearing everyone to absolute, total secrecy. Nine whole people, ten if she included Chat Noir, who would become huge liabilities that she would have to watch constantly, regardless of how trustworthy they were (and there was a wide range of trustworthiness in this group, from Chat Noir who she trusted completely, to Chloé, who was…Chloé). This entire situation was a complete and utter disaster unless Marinette could give them some plausible alternate explanation for how they got in the school.

“I’m an ethereal, dimensionless being and I manifest myself on the physical plane where needed in times of crisis,” Marinette blurted out. _So much for plausible_ , she thought glumly. She might as well have shouted her own name for all the suspicion that would fall on her now. At least she’d somehow kept her voice steady.

And yet…somehow, impossibly, it seemed they were…believing her. Alya looked like she wanted to believe, but couldn’t quite, but the others were either disinterested, or amazed – especially Nino.

“Way cool!” he said, and turned to Chat Noir. “Is that the case for you, too?”

“No,” Chat Noir said, his tone deadly serious. “I’m an ordinary house cat.”

For a moment, Marinette allowed herself to consider beaning him in the head with her yo-yo. That was even worse than her excuse! He was going to make them suspicious again and then their identities would be exposed and…

But the others just looked dumbfounded.

“Are…are you serious?”

“Yes,” Chat Noir said, nodding and still sounding completely serious. “I live in this school. I won’t tell you where, can’t have that getting back to Papillon, after all.”

This was ridiculous, but if it was going to get them out of this situation, Marinette was going to roll with it as best she could.

“Absolutely,” she said, as calmly as possible. “You understand this has to remain a secret, right? You can’t tell anyone, and you _have to_ delete this from your phones.” She looked pointedly at Nino and Alya, who both looked put out. “If that information fell into the wrong hands, Papillon could gain an advantage over us.”

“Oh,” Alya said. She looked saddened, but appeared to understand, as she put away her phone. Most of the others gave their acknowledgement as well.

Marinette let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She couldn’t _believe_ that had worked, yet…by all indications, it had.

She was still going to have _words_ with Chat Noir, though. First chance she got, she pulled him to her and spoke to him in the quietest voice she could possibly manage, while the others began investigating the room.

“ _An ordinary house cat?!?_ ” she said, hoping her absolute incredulity came through. “ _Really?_ That’s _what you go with?_ ”

“ _Hey, not all of us have the poise to pull off ‘extradimensional entity’_ ,” he retorted, equally quietly. Marinette seriously doubted the word “poise” could be applied to her, but hey, whatever. “ _So I figured, go with something so ridiculous, no one would reasonably use it as a cover – therefore everyone would think it_ had _to be true_ ,”

“ _That makes absolutely no sense and I can’t believe that it worked_ ,” Marinette said, shaking her head slightly. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Nino filming them. Fortunately, he was far enough away that he shouldn’t have been able to hear them.

“ _Honestly same_ ,” Chat Noir said, then glanced over to where Nino was, and raised his voice to a normal level. “So, there’s no doubt that we have another Akuma on our hands, right?”

“Right. And it’s taking off with the students one by one. But where?”

“Must be inside the school, unless it can pass through this barrier.”

“I hope not, I don’t want you to have to use your Cataclysm on this stuff if it can just put it back.” Marinette glanced over at the others, looking for any sign that they were suspicious. Fortunately, it seemed they were buying the strategy talk, but Nino’s footage was still a problem. As the producer, she was in charge of editing, so she could prevent anything damaging from spreading, but she needed to do something about the original footage. But that was a problem for later – right now, they needed to focus on capturing the akuma.

“Everyone, stick together and follow me,” Marinette announced.

“You know I’d follow you anywhere, my Lady,” Chat Noir said. Marinette shot him her best “now is not the time” look, and led everyone out, following the tracks of goo along the ground. This led to their own classroom, which appeared empty, save for a single shoe on the ground.

“Oh no!” Chat Noir said, a bit too loudly. “We’re too late! It already got someone!”

Marinette resisted the urge to elbow him into shutting up. He was _not_ making it easier to ignore what she was trying to shove out of her mind for the sake of their safety and her sanity.

A distraction came just in time. Nathaniel was snatched up, and the akuma victim appeared. Marinette immediately jumped into action, forcing the others to evacuate, as Chat Noir tried to fend it off. The fight was carried out into the courtyard, and the monster snatched up and made off with Alix as well. Marinette noticed that Chloé and Sabrina had vanished as well. Internally, she grumbled. What had she said about “sticking together”? But of course Chloé hadn’t listened, of course she hadn’t.

That wasn’t the only thing Marinette noticed, though.

“Did you see that the monster spared Ivan?” she asked Chat Noir. He nodded, and said that it was weird. Marinette didn’t agree. “I think that this monster is Mylène!”

That knowledge was probably way too much of a giveaway when the preservation of her identity was already on such thin ice, but a part of her recognized it was probably already too late for damage control with Chat Noir. It was a miracle they’d pulled it off with everyone else.

Those who remained – only Alya, Nino, Ivan, Rose, and Juleka at this point – rejoined them, and they continued to track the akumatized Mylène into her lair. And “lair” was certainly the right word for it…the room was covered in goo cocoons that Marinette could only assume held the captive students. Just great, another problem…she was supposedly in one of these, and people would notice if she wasn’t there after she cleaned the place up. This was going to take some quick thinking…

The monster reappeared, and she and Chat Noir resumed the fight. Marinette used Lucky Charm and got…guitar strings. Why strings? Why couldn’t she get the whole guitar? Well, she couldn’t object too much – it made sense, the monster was powered by fear, and Mylène had sung a song earlier to keep fear in check. Only problem with that solution was that knowing Mylène’s song from earlier would _definitely_ be suspicious. She needed something else.

Still, she began handing out her makeshift instruments, and just pulled the strings tight as Chat Noir landed next to her, looking at her curiously.

“We need to control our fear by singing,” she announced. When all she got were stares, she continued. “The monster feeds on our fear; we need to shrink it down. So, any suggestions?” she prompted, hoping someone else would remember Mylène’s song from earlier so that they could sing it.

“I’ve got one!” Chat Noir said, grinning suddenly.

 _No, not_ you _,_ Marinette thought, despairing as she barely contained her frustration. Him suggesting it was as bad as her suggesting it. Didn’t he understand that?

But, it seemed she may have misjudged his intentions, as he sat down at the makeshift drumset.

“Everybody wants to be a cat,” he began to sing.

“Chat Noir, no,” Marinette said, half in relief and half in exasperation. He grinned at her in response – and never before had a mere grin so clearly conveyed the words “Chat Noir, yes” – and continued the song.

Alya, Nino, and Rose enthusiastically joined in, though it was clear that they didn’t know the words (except for the chorus, obviously) nearly as well as Chat Noir did (and honestly was it any surprise that he had that song memorized? Marinette certainly wouldn’t expect anything less of her partner). Ivan and Juleka made more halfhearted attempts, and Marinette herself settled for rolling her eyes as she smiled and strummed the guitar strings.

It worked. Monster!Mylène shrunk down, and leapt into Ivan’s arms. Ivan pointed out the button on her head, and Marinette broke it, releasing the akuma for her to capture.

Now came the tricky part.

“Nino, the lighting in here isn’t very good, is it?” she said carefully, in the most casual tone she could muster.

“Uh, no,” he said. “Why?”

“Well, you’re making a film, right?” He nodded. “So you probably want to get a good shot of everything getting fixed. But with the lighting in here, it won’t look as great. So, why don’t you and everyone go out to the courtyard, and that way get a great shot!” She blinked innocently at him for extra effect.

“Yeah! That sounds cool…but wait, what about seeing the captured prisoners get released? I can’t do that out there.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Chat Noir jumped in, as he slung an arm around Marinette’s shoulders. “Wouldn’t it be just as cool to film them dramatically emerge from the doorway to reunite with you guys? So you go on, and Ladybug and I will take care of sending everyone out to you. Sound good?”

“That sounds awesome!” Nino said eagerly. “Thanks, you two!” He practically dragged the others out in his enthusiasm.

Marinette waited a few moments to give Nino time to take position, then flung the guitar strings into the air to invoke the cure. Ladybugs swept over the area, and were no doubt giving Nino quite the show. As soon as the captives were released, Chat Noir began ushering them over to the door without giving them the chance to look around much.

“You heard the plan, right?” he said. “Go on, give the director your best! A couple at a time, let’s draw it out.”

“You back there, hurry it up,” Marinette added. Not that there was anyone back there, but she needed to give that impression just in case someone noticed who wasn’t with the group. She turned to Chat Noir, and said, not as quietly as earlier, but quietly enough to be out of earshot of the others, “Well that almost was a disaster.”

“It was a close call,” he agreed, then hesitated. “Uh, between us…” he trailed off and left the rest unsaid. Marinette understood.

“I’m going to go home and scream into a pillow for a few hours, then play Ultimate Mecha Strike until my brain goes numb. I won’t be ready to talk about this until I do that.”

“Can I join you for Mecha Strike?”

“Only if you’re prepared to lose,” she said, flicking his bell. “Go, we need to be right behind the others.”

He went, and she knew by the flash of light that he detransformed on the way. She followed suit, and made her way out to the others. Just as she’d hoped, they were all so busy with greeting each other that no one paid attention to the lack of heroes around.

She was definitely going to have to do something about the footage, though.

And scream.

She was going to have to do a lot of screaming, too.

**Author's Note:**

> [French version of "Everybody Wants to be a Cat"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IXSKwujXdw) for your viewing pleasure. You just know Adrien has this song memorized...as well as the rest of the movie.


End file.
